


Snow

by OnlySlightlyObsessed1



Series: 12 Days of Spones [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: 12 Days of Spones, 1k to 5k, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Shore Leave, Snow, not the episode, prompt, prompt: snow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:14:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28025337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnlySlightlyObsessed1/pseuds/OnlySlightlyObsessed1
Summary: It's snowing in around the mountain lodge where McCoy and Spock have decided to take their leave.
Relationships: Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Spock
Series: 12 Days of Spones [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2061498
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	Snow

**Author's Note:**

> It's past midnight that means the event has started right? I hope everyone is having as good a time of the year as possible and is staying safe. Here's some plotless fluff for you, I hope it doesn't snow for me in real life quite yet though :P

It fell softly, silently, swirling against the viewscreens. McCoy appreciated the view as much as he could with a patient taking up most of his attention. Nothing serious, but a torn ACL was painful and although there wasn't much he could do until they got back to sick bay, it didn't feel like quite the right time for gazing out the windows. 

His trainee was doing well. T'Ana had confidently identified the injury and they'd had no working together to get Ensign Lukas into the shuttle. He was practically unconscious now with the pain hypo setting in. 

Their pilot's voice broke the illusion of peace made by the snow, confirming their departure and noting their ETA. They were beginning to rise faster, leaving the clouds and the snowy white landscape below obscured. T'Ana tore her gaze away from the outside back to glance at the readouts. Nothing had changed. With her wide expectant eyes then turned on him, he tried not to sigh.

"What will you do when we arrive?" he asked her.

Reassured by the familiar line of questioning, she launched into a well rehearsed explanation of procedure.

They docked in the shuttle bay and T'Ana took Ensign Lukas through the corridors, watching McCoy from the corner of her eye while she worked. It took about an hour. She was slow and methodical and it was a textbook sort of injury. McCoy made a mental note to reference it in her evaluation next week. They left their patient to sleep it off in the care of the nurses and returned to the shuttle. This time, with nothing tying her to the back, T'Ana sat in the copilot's seat and spent the entirety of the short trip back with her face metaphorically pressed to the glass. 

It had stopped snowing by the time they were back in the small clinic at the lodge. 

The nurse trainee, a young man named Duane, was as eager to hear how it went as T'Ana was to share. Their enthusiasm was a delight to witness secondhand. Nurse Jacoby obviously felt similarly. She was hiding her smile in the storage closet.

McCoy took his PADD to the window and entered his summary without any particular urgency. The sun was starting to come out again, making the snow crusted landscape sparkle. At 1200 hours his leave would start.

Half an hour later there was a sprained wrist and a concussion practically back-to-back, which gave T'Ana and Duane an opportunity to take charge. McCoy lent his authority to help T'Ana convince their no longer concussed patient to go back to their hotel room and _rest._

When he got back to his PADD at the spot by the window, Spock had messaged him. He could feel how it made his expression change. In typical Spock fashion the message itself wasn't anything demonstrative. Only a restaurant link and the statement: I will meet you at 1200.

McCoy replied that he'd be late.

The clouds were coming in again, dimming the light from the window, threatening more snow.

At 1200, when they'd given out a couple more hypos and instructions not to get back on the slopes, Doctor Perera traded off with him. McCoy collected his personal belongings while chatting with Nurse Jacoby until they heard Duane greet a patient and McCoy considered the merits of sneaking out the back to avoid getting sucked into treating anyone else and being even more late.

Spock's voice, distinctive enough and one of few McCoy was always listening for, sent him hurrying from the back room in concern.

Nothing was obviously wrong with him, Duane wasn’t directing him anywhere, and when Spock saw him, his face softened into an almost smile.

“Leonard, are you ready?”

For lunch, of course.

“Just let me grab my personal PADD.”

They walked hand in hand to the restaurant. McCoy was amused by the way he caught Spock’s attention deviating from the path ahead of them. His eyes would land on a snow covered plant and stick there turning his head until they were past it, and the next interesting bit of white fluff caught his eye. They were seated near a window, and Spock's face turned towards it as if held by a string. 

McCoy bit his lip, but couldn’t truly laugh at him because the snow was almost as novel an experience for himself, given he’d never lived in a place where it snowed naturally, and since of course there was no weather on the ship. 

He ordered hot butternut squash soup and grilled cheese, and Spock got a baked pasta dish with fresh herbs. They traded bites. McCoy took a second forkful of Spock’s pasta. Spock abstained from the grilled cheese.

It was snowing, but not very hard, as they finished their meal and walked back to their rented cabin in the residential area. Spock caught some in his hand and watched it melt. McCoy stuck his tongue out, but couldn’t get one to land. 

They took off their boots on the covered part of the porch, hung their coats in the closet, and walked in socked feet to the kitchen living room area. McCoy sank into the couch gratefully. He was tired, perhaps unfairly, with T’Ana around it wasn’t as though he really had to do much of anything.

“Would you like some tea?” Spock asked.

A hot drink did sound nice. “Could I bother you for apple cider?”

McCoy took the kitchen noises as answer enough. A minute later, a mug was set on the coffee table in front of him. 

“No bother.”

“Thank you, darlin.”

Spock raised his fingers for a kiss and McCoy obliged. They sipped their respective hot beverages in silence for several minutes. McCoy soaked up Spock’s company the same way he soaked up the heat radiating from the floor.

“How did you spend your morning?” he asked, when his mug was three quarters empty.

Spock said, “I meditated until 1100.”

“Taking advantage of your leave in the typical manner I see.”

“It is called rest and relaxation for a reason,” Spock muttered.

“I’m not criticizing you,” McCoy said calmly, not that Spock had taken offense, but he wanted to be clear. His attempts went unnoticed because at that moment Spock’s eyes went almost comically wide.

“Leonard, look outside.”

“What?” He twisted around and leaned forward to look out the big window by the front door, and felt his own expression change in surprise as well. The snow was coming down hard. The pole supporting the covered part of the porch was visible, but everything else was completely obscured by featureless white swirls. “Oh it’s really snowing.”

Spock stood and left his tea on the table to get closer to the window. McCoy sipped his cider and watched, weighing the chances Spock would reject any frivolous suggestions. Maybe, since it was leave, he could convince him to let himself have just a little bit of fun. He put his mug next to Spock’s and came up behind him, wrapping an arm around his waist. 

“What do you say we put our coats back on?”

Spock turned to look at him, one eyebrow raised. 

“Don’t pretend you don’t think it’s fascinating,” McCoy said.

“It is a natural and extremely common phenomenon,” Spock replied.

“A very fun, natural and very common weather phenomenon.” 

McCoy pulled away even as Spock continued to stare. He’d let himself follow or he wouldn’t, but McCoy was going to go stand in the flurry whether Spock decided to join him or not. In addition to his coat, McCoy pulled out his hat and scarf from the closet, fully bundling himself, and then regretting his lack of foresight, took off his scarf to dig through his luggage for his waterproof gloves. By the time he got back to the door, Spock had redressed himself as well, and added several more layers than he’d been wearing before. McCoy could just barely see his eyes in between the layers of hoods and scarves. 

“Ready?” McCoy asked. 

They shoved their feet in their boots on the doorstep, and stepped out of the covered porch onto the snow carpeted walkway. 

Snowflakes tumbled down in long whirls. The wind was playful, pushing the eddies here and there in unpredictable patterns. McCoy turned his head up to look up at the sky, amused by the blank sky and the way larger clumps of snow seemed to hurtle from nothingness towards his eyes. When he laughed some of it blew into his mouth.

Next to him, Spock was holding out his hands, enraptured by the way snowflakes collected in the creases of his gloves and were blown away again with the occasional gust of wind.

McCoy walked in a circle. The snow was falling fast enough that by the time he reached the spot where he’d begun the fresh layer covered the pattern from the soles of his shoes. All that was left was a slight indentation. 

“Did you not have ample opportunities to visit the snow when you were a child?” Spock asked, observing his amusement.

“Not often. Maybe once a year, if that. Are you saying I’m acting childish? I haven't even thrown any snowballs at you.”

“Your childlike wonder at a simple result of—”

“Don’t let any meteorologists hear you calling weather simple.”

I will endeavor not to offend our large number of meteorologist friends,” Spock said. 

“You’re one to talk about childlike wonder, anyways,” McCoy felt it necessary to point out.

Spock brushed his hands off, and made his way to the shrubbery along the wall behind McCoy. “My interest is a logical desire to gain more firsthand experience with a phenomenon I have little chance to observe so closely.”

“Right, very logical,” McCoy said. Spock knocked the accumulated snow off a leaf. It fell to the snow underneath. Valuable scientific insight in the making. "Want to walk a little ways?"

Spock left his scientific leaf behind and surprised McCoy by slipping his gloved hand into the crook of his arm. McCoy didn't bother holding back his smile.

The pathways from cabin to cabin were cleared regularly. They only had a thin layer of newly fallen snow on them, crushed by their boots as they walked. The area was pretty, if a little too orderly. At the back, behind the neatly packed cabins was a more natural sparse forest and hilly area. The trees weren't so obviously trimmed to a shape and the bushes weren't strategically placed. 

A few families and groups of people were running around in the snow, some of the children with sleds. McCoy winced as one small child tumbled off their sled and face first into a snowdrift. Unphased, they dug themselves out and dragged their sled in a rush back to the top of the hill to their friends.

A small group of young Andorians were running about playing some kind of hide and seek behind the trees. Even with the snow coming down hard they weren't wearing anything more than sweaters. 

It was a picturesque sort of scene, like something straight out of an advertisement for cold weather clothes for the whole family. McCoy was struck with an uncomfortable sense of nostalgia for the domestic life he’d never really had. He tucked himself closer to Spock as they walked onwards. Their path was taking them back among the cabins again, where the snow was blanketing any objects people had been foolish enough to leave outside the covered porches. 

McCoy had expected the intensity of the snowfall to die down quickly, but although it was not falling quite as hard as it had been when the first went out, it kept coming down at an impressive rate. If it didn’t let up, they’d have another several inches on the ground before sunset.

They stopped at the intersection of two paths. 

“Do you wish to continue our walk?” Spock asked.

“Either way,” McCoy said.

In answer, Spock steered them back towards their cabin.

This time, they took their boots off indoors so they wouldn’t freeze overnight or get snow blown in them. McCoy hung his coats and left his gloves to dry out. Spock disentangled himself from his bundle of scarves. 

“More tea?” McCoy suggested. He knew Spock’s answer and was already collecting their mugs to refill them. He rinsed his first to remove the cider residue. When he returned from the kitchen he found Spock holding the PADD with the book he was reading, but still staring out the window at the snow. McCoy didn’t comment.

Spock made room for him to lay against his side and pull blankets over them both. When Spock’s hand settled into his hair, he closed his eyes.

“If you’re not careful you will fall asleep,” Spock said quietly.

“It’s called rest and relaxation for a reason.”

A kiss on his forehead. “I’ll wake you before dinner.”

McCoy hummed. Inside, the floor heating switched off and the central air began to blow. Spock’s mug settled against the coffee table every so often. Outside, it was cold and the snow fell silently.

**Author's Note:**

> (I forgot when I first posted this but in case anyone else needs/wants the info) 12 days of spones is run on the fuckyeahspones tumblr and information can be found here: https://fuckyeahspones.tumblr.com/post/635699400968224768/12-days-of-spones-a-winter-event-december-12th


End file.
